Volume 9, 74: Empire’s Turmoil Arc 20 Free Lunch
Black smoke covered the tracks for hundreds of meters.
Normally smoke bombs can’t do this, but, adding in wind particles greatly expands how far the smoke proliferates. Three smoke bombs a short distance apart were able to cover hundreds of meters of tracks.
Only the railway track at this point isn’t any good. Since they are fixed, even if we were to wait out the smoke we would be exposed in their line of sight.
And we obviously were not that stupid. The ancients told us about a tactic called ‘cicada sheds its shell’.
So, we set the speed of the train to its maximum, jumped off of the roof, and hid in the forest.
Well, until they stop our train they won’t be able to find out that we had escaped, and by that time we will be on a train to the Imperial College.
But now we don’t have to hurry. Now the two squads heading to the other cities shouldn’t be blocked.
Thus to waste more time, we leisurely traveled through the forest to Daydream City. Of course, to waste more time we left plenty of traces that we were heading to Daydream City.
If it’s like this then there will be a lower possibility that the other two groups will be found.
Ten minutes later the three of us had arrived back at Daydream City. The guard at the gate just casually looked at our mercenary identification before letting us go.
Out of options, so much equipment, need to change a lot, and we have to be tenacious.
Right now we are an ordinary sub-magic swordsman, dual swordsman and assassin mercenary combination. We exchanged our clothing to some that had been damaged in previous fights as to make our identities more credible.
historical
Walking down to the central plaza, we looked for a corner with relatively few people to sit down.
“Let’s rest a bit in Daydream city. They are going to start blocking the city anyways, but our behavior just now paralyzed the railway station, right? They shouldn’t be able to shut down the alarm in such a short time so let’s just hang out here for a bit.”
“Well~ I don’t care~”
Aliyah tossed out with a curled lip.
“Un, as long as I can be with big brother~”
Oyado said happily, taking hold of my hand at my side.
“Eh......”
On the side, Aliyah frowned. At the same time a strange mark lit up by Aliyah’s name.
Eh? What happened?
I opened the window and an arrow appeared above her emotional display.
Right, the emotional value and the level display were too close so I had mistakenly turned it off.
......
Don’t tell me Aliyah......
I started it up and the result that popped out shocked me!
Aliyah’s value was jumping franticly jumping between 1 and 999. It felt a bit like a heartbeat.
I looked at Oyado next. Her value was normal......that’s not right. Why is your value staying at 888? Is it your lucky number or something?
(Tl: 8 is a lucky number in China. 888 would be extremely lucky.)
Speaking of which, how is this number calculated? Aliyah is......
“That......Aliyah......”
Thinking for a moment, I reached a bit towards her.
“Let’s sit together.”
“Humph! That’s......you’re the one that’s inviting me, I’m not taking the initiative!”
Done, like Oyado, she was sitting by my side, and pulling on my hand.
But......
What are the two of you staring at each other for......
Looking at their expressions I can only smile bitterly. However, I was relieved when I saw that Aliyah’s value had stabilized at 893.
It would be no laughing matter if Aliyah ran away......
But...... could it be that Aliyah liked me?
Oyado is very dependent on me, so I can understand the high value. But why is Aliyah’s value so high?
But I shouldn’t have done anything to improve her affection rating? Why is it like that?
It’s totally incomprehensible......
“It’s......”
I looked at Aliyah. I just wanted to ask something when she suddenly looked at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah......It’s......nothing. Just, let’s go and eat. We ran for so long but we haven’t eaten anything.”
Looking at Aliyah’s eyes, I held back what I wanted to say.
I was originally going to confirm it, but...... I feel that it will always be awkward to ask that sort of question. If it wasn’t what I imagined it was then it would affect our relationship.
In order to avoid that situation, or rather...... I’ll find out later.
“Well, it was your plan, so it will be your treat!”
“Obviously it was Bai Yueguang......ok, I get it. Don’t stare at me with that look, I’ll treat you.”
Looking at Aliyah’s expression, I had to give a bitter laugh while looking around.
“All right, what are we eating?”
“Corn cake!”
Oyado said, pointing towards the snack shop opposite to us.
“Oh, it really is the favorite food of children. You go. We are going to eat some grilled meat!”
You only want to eat meat......
While Aliyah said that she pulled me towards a barbecue restaurant on the side.
I glanced at Oyado, patted her head and replied.
“All right. Let’s eat barbecue and buy corn cake later.”
“Un......big brother is nice~”
Oyado obediently nodded.
So, with Aliyah’s vigorous pulling, we went to the barbecue restaurant.
But once we got there we discovered that we stood out among the store’s patrons. Aside from the three of us outside, everyone at the store were all brawny, muscular people.
Well, naturally there is also a female warrior covered in muscles. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call us thin compared to them.
“Oh, Welcome. Is it three people?”
The store manager was a brawny middle-aged man with a small curled moustache. In his hand was a string of pork lumps on a sword.
That’s right. The guy is holding a sword in his hand. Barbecuing with a longsword.
I have to say that the spirit of this barbecue restaurant is pretty good.
“That’s right. Do you have any private rooms?”
I looked around and asked.
“Ah, that...... we don’t have any private rooms.”
“Little bro! Eating this kind of meat is something you do with everyone so that we can all be merry.”
The person next to the uncle said as they held a piece of meat.
“Is it that you haven’t been a mercenary for long? You should know, the afternoons are spent passing through wine and meat!”
“Ha ha......really......please give me a seat. What do you want, Aliyah?”
“Let’s start with five kilos of roast beef.”
Aliyah said, looking at the menu.
“Oh, then, boss~ five kilos of beef per person, three cans of beer, Do you have any lamb? If there is then one roasted sheep.”
The store instantly became quiet.
“Eh? What are you looking at?”
I looked curiously at the people around us.
“No......nothing......”
Everyone turned away.
Eh? Was our order too small?
We were probably eating this much beforehand. But looking at these people, they should be able to eat more than us.
The manager gave a spot to us and then went back.
I had wanted to say something to Aliyah just then when a person suddenly sat at the empty seat at our table with a wine glass in his hand.
“Little Brother!”
It was a scantly clad female Berserker, but her muscular body made her intimidating.
Her hair was tied into a whip hanging down her back. Her face was resolute, handsome, and flushed red.
How much did she drink.
“Would you like to challenge with me the store’s dragon meat bag! How about the loser cover the cost of the game?”
“You are...... going to challenge one of us?”
The three of asked at the same time.
The shop went quiet again.
“It seems that big sister Lu has found an opponent.”
“Is that right, you think that those three can eat more than sister Lu?”
“Who knows? But they ordered over 15 kilos of meat.”
“You guys shut up!”
The person called sister Lu turned to snap at that person.
“I challenge you three. As long as one of you can eat more than me, you win. How about it?”
“No problem!”
The three of us replied at the same time.
Good. It’s time for a free lunch!